The Telegraph
France and Germany are considering sanctions for vaccine suppliers as the EU fight over delays escalates
France and Germany on Sunday threatened legal action against AstraZeneca, as they rushed to explain their shortages of vaccine supplies and warned that any company that favors UK orders would be punished for the shots. Clement Beaune, the French minister of Europe, threatened sanctions against the Anglo-Swedish firm that produces the Oxford vaccine if it turned out that Britain had been given priority. “If there is a problem and other countries have been preferred – for example the UK over us – then we will defend our interests,” Mr Beaune said on Sunday. “Contracts are not moral obligations, they are legal obligations. Penalties or sanctions can be imposed in any contract.” It came when Berlin and Rome made similar threats to vaccine suppliers, in the final stages of a bitter row in Europe over delays in the production and delivery of Covid injections. “If we discover that individual companies are not upholding their side of the bargain, then we will have to decide on legal action,” said Peter Altmaier, Germany’s economy minister, in Die Welt newspaper. Mr Altmaier, a close confidant of Chancellor Angela Merkel, also warned vaccine makers that “it is in no way acceptable for another country to be retroactively favored over the EU.” AstraZeneca says it will deliver 4.6 million doses to France by the end of March, half the amount initially agreed. It has also significantly lowered its delivery targets for the EU for the first quarter of the year, sparking a furious response from Brussels, accusing the company of offering preferential treatment to the UK. Sanctions envisaged by France include withholding payments, canceling subsequent orders and seeking compensation for breach of contract. Mr Beaune said that an investigation is already underway into the supply of vaccines to Britain from factories based in the EU. As the third wave of coronavirus spreads across the continent, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has opposed calls for a third lockdown and has instead tightened existing restrictions. “If you are French, you have everything you need to succeed, provided you dare to try,” he is said to have told ministers on Friday, although refusing to declare a full lockdown contradicted. the recommendations of its own scientific advisers. Polish police launched tear gas and anesthetic grenades over the weekend as they closed illegal nightclubs and parties in the cities of Wroclaw and Rybnik. As in other European cities, some companies have opened up to trade in violation of the rules, while protests about Covid restrictions have broken out in the Netherlands, Spain, France and Denmark. Dutch police arrested at least 30 people in Amsterdam on Sunday in their fight to prevent another outbreak of anti-lockdown riots. Thousands of protesters also took to the streets of Vienna over the weekend to participate in an anti-lockdown demonstration organized by a far-right group. Similar scenes took place in Hungary, where a group of 100 restaurants said they would reopen despite threats of severe government fines. It also emerged over the weekend that Boris Johnson was forcing the EU to flip vaccines twice after Brussels tried to prevent doses at a Belgian factory from reaching the UK, and imposed a hard border in Northern Ireland for the same purpose. During two phone calls with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, Mr Johnson is said to have persuaded the head of the EU to withdraw both proposals, the Mail on Sunday reported. Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), told the BBC on Sunday that they were “blinded” by the threat from the EU to close the border. “The problem is that the committee has used the wrong mechanism by repealing Article 16 of the protocol to address it,” he said, adding that there is “much to learn” about vaccine delivery. On Sunday evening, Ms. von der Leyen announced on Twitter that the EU will supply more vaccines this week. “[AstraZeneca] will deliver an additional 9 million doses in the first quarter (40 million in total) compared to last week’s supply and will begin deliveries a week ahead of schedule. The company will also expand its production capacity in Europe, ”she wrote.